Matay, Dayro d-Mor

Located on the Alfof Mountain, known in Arabic as Jabal Maqlūb, 35 km.
northeast of Mosul, the monastery is mostly known by its Arabic name Dayr Mār
Mattā. It is named after a monk named Matay who came from the region of Amid in
the latter part of the 4th cent. It is known from historical documents as
early as the late 5th or early 6th cent., when it was already a center of
the Syr. Orth. Church. The Chronicles of Michael Rabo
and Bar ʿEbroyo record that life resumed at the
monastery by the end of the 5th cent. Monasticism took various forms in the
monastery, including monks who were ʾabile
‘anchorites’, ḥbiše ‘recluses’, and ʾiḥidoye ‘hermits’, but others preferred communal life. The
monastery appears to have had a bishopric line from its early days, whose
title often included Nineveh (i.e.,
Mosul). It was also here that a number of local Synods took place. The
bishopric of this monastery was so strong that on many occasions, especially
from the 7th cent. onward, the residing bp. would challenge the authority of
the Maphrian, to the degree that he became a de facto co-equal to the
Maphrian, each of them ruling over half of the Syr. Orth. Church in the
East. In 869, Patr. Yuḥanon III held a Synod which reiterated the
subordinate position of the Maphrianate of the East in relation to the
Patriarchate of Antioch. In
addition, the first Canon of that Synod made it clear that the bp. of the
monastery is to be subordinate to the Maphrian. Michael Rabo also reiterated
this relationship in 1174. The monastery was famous for its magnificent
library which is cited in the correspondence of Timotheos I in
the 8th cent., and later by Dawid bar Pawlos of Beth Rabban. It is also mentioned in a colophon of a
Syriac ms. (Berlin, no. 327) that in 1298 the library contained all the
writings of Bar ʿEbroyo. In 1171, the Kurds attacked the monastery and many
of the mss. were damaged; some that survived were carried by monks to Mosul.
In 1369, another Kurdish attack on the monastery damaged more mss. Today
mss. from this monastery can be found in the British Library, Cambridge
University Library, Staatsbibliothek, Berlin, and the Vatican Library. The
monastery served as the seat for the Maphrian on many occasions. Bar ʿEbroyo
spent the first seven years of his Maphrianate here. During the early 19th
cent., the Kurds raided the monastery many times, and as a result it was
abandoned for 12 years. Later that century, Oswald Parry, a delegate of the
Archbishop of Canterbury, visited the monastery and published an account
detailing life there. In modern times, the monastery was the venue of the
Dayro d-Mor Matay Synod in 1930, the first and only Synod with
representation of the laity. The Beth Qadishe of the monastery contains the
remains of six Maphrians and many bishops including Bar ʿEbroyo and his
brother. The monastery has over 50 rooms, 3 halls for gathering, and a
church. To the left of the monastery is a large cave with natural mountain
spring water dripping from the ceiling. Today, the monastery is the seat of
its own archdiocese.